A little knowledge goes a long way. Quizzing adventures in Ireland.

Go to a quiz in Ireland and you’ll almost certainly be asked one of these facts.

Sometimes I think that Collective Nouns were created just to frustrate the quiz contestant. Wikipedia tells us that “the first known collection of specific names for collective groups of animals was published in 1486 in The Book of Saint Albans, in an essay on hunting attributed to Dame Juliana Berners. Many of the words are thought to have been chosen simply for the humorous or poetic images they conjured up in her lively imagination.”

Indeed.

As I’ve said previously, if I ruled the world, I’d abolish all but three: herd, flock and bunch! Until that day comes, you’d better check out this list of collective nouns.

Phobias are a different beast. I can see the justification for their existance. Medical issues are almost infinite in their granularisation. However, why do they have to be based on ancient Greek? Yes, the -phobia suffix is greek, but what’d be wrong with saying someone suffered from “catophobia” instead of Ailurophobia? Nothing, I reckon!

Why are we so obsessed with US State Capitals? We have our own County Towns – and some of them are hard enough to remember if you’re not from there. After that, why do we go to America? Why not France, Portugal or Azerbaijan?

I think it’s down to two factors: 1) we’re vaguely familiar with them all, given how much US culture we absorb during our lives and 2) there are 50 of them, which is enough to mean there’s always one you can’t quite remember. Click here for a list and a handy map.

Do you know your alpha from your zulu? How about the letters in between? Do you even know what I’m on about? Best check out this list of words that make up the international phonetic alphabet.

I don’t know why the Champagne industry couldn’t be contented with the same bottle size as the rest of the wine world. However, their determination to be different has left some scope for question setters to test contestants. Be prepared by reading up on the champagne bottle sizes.